We had three things planned for today; tour the Tabasco plant, see the alligators in the gardens on Avery Island, and visit a plantation. The McIlhenny family has a pretty sweet operation here! It is a pretty small facility, but it is the only place in the world where Tabasco Sauce is bottled! They bottle over 700,000 bottles a day, and it is sold in over 120 countries! The last time we were here, they had just introduced the Chipotle flavored Tabasco Sauce. This time they had another new sauce – Sweet and Spicy. After watching a short movie, and walking through the plant, we did some shopping at the gift shop. We stocked up on Tabasco BBQ Chips, Tabasco BBQ Sauce and assorted Tabasco flavored sauces. YUMMY!
Next we took a short drive to the other side of Avery Island to see the Jungle Gardens. This area of the island is a sanctuary for native wildlife including alligators and Snowy Egrets. We got out of the car at the first stream that we came to and five alligators (one young baby) swam right up to the bank to check us out! All along the drive were some HUGE spider webs spanning the trees, and perched right in the middle of the webs were some VERY BIG, and beautifully colored spiders! I recognized them as looking a lot like one I had seen before, so we looked them up and yes, they were Orb spiders. Not to worry, non-poisonous J We also saw some tiny green lizards and beautiful dragon flies and butterflies. Bird City is a series of bamboo decks built over a lagoon that Snowy Egrets congregate on. They return here each year, and some even over winter right on the island. The trees around the lagoon were teaming with what seemed like hundreds of birds! As we looked down from the observation platform, we saw tracks through the algae that were signs that alligators were lurking below the surface. Finally, we spotted one that came up and gave us a look. Again, the gator swam towards us. It was a bit unnerving as we walked near the water’s edge to see all of the warning signs cautioning us that alligators are dangerous. I always made sure to keep an eye out for gators around where I was walking because the ground around the water was quite overgrown and dense. This park is a real adventure!
Our next scheduled stop was back towards Lafayette to the Blue Dog Saloon for a Cajun lunch. The entire restaurant was decorated with artwork by the famed artist, George Rodrigue. I’m sure that you would recognize his work. A cute little blue dog appears in each and every one of his paintings! The food was great and we were tempted by the dessert menu, but we couldn’t linger. We were crossing our fingers hoping to arrive at our next destination, The Nottoway Plantation, before it closed. Well, we missed it by about 15 minutes L but……………part of the house is set aside as a bed and breakfast!!!! It seems things happen for a reason! Who would have thought that we would be spending the night in a beautiful plantation! Rich and I had a room in the main house (huge and beautiful), LeeAnne and Paul were in the wing of the main house that was used by the family’s sons, and Erin, Lindsey and Bryan stayed in the two room overseer’s cottage. What a thrill it was to stay here! We had a great dinner before retiring for the night. In the morning we were treated to breakfast and a tour of the mansion.
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